Quincy police are cracking down on texting while driving

Police officers were watching for drivers distracted by texting in Quincy Tuesday, April 11. An hour into the patrol, they had already pulled over six drivers.

Zane Razzaq The Patriot Ledger

Local police officers were cracking down on distracted driving with a patrols in Quincy on Tuesday afternoon.

The Quincy police first started the patrol on Friday last week. The effort is part of a statewide education campaign by the Highway Safety Division and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, with April being Distracted Driving Awareness month. Other police departments in the South Shore area also holding their own patrols, including Norwell, Weymouth, and Braintree.

“We have a lot of pedestrian accidents in Quincy,” said Sergeant Dennis Maloney, who was participating in the patrol. “There are fatal accidents and people getting injured... distracted driving is the main reason for this.”

The Quincy Police Department recently received a $20,000 grant from the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The grant will go towards funding five traffic enforcement operations throughout the year, including making sure drivers are wearing their seatbelts and that they are stopping for pedestrians.

Sergeant Dennis Flaherty stood by a traffic light, in a gray T-shirt, scanning drivers passing through the intersection at Washington St. and Mayor Thomas McGrath Highway. When he spotted a driver distracted by his or her cellphone, he radioed it in to Maloney, who then pulled them over at the intersection of Washington St. and Elm St.

An hour into the patrol, the officers had pulled over six drivers for using their phones while driving. Most were given warnings, but one driver, who Maloney said had had past interactions with the police, was given a $125 ticket. Most, Maloney said, were in their twenties.

The education campaign comes as deaths caused by distracted driving surge in Massachusetts. There were 348 deaths caused by distracted driving in Massachusetts in 2014. In 2016, there were 399 deaths, a 15% increase, according to a 2017 report by the National Security Council.

“For the most part, people are cooperative and understand that they are doing something wrong,” said Maloney.

Drivers under 18 are banned from using any mobile device while driving in Massachusetts. Texting while driving or while stopped at a traffic light is banned in Massachusetts. Fines can run up to $500 and juvenile drivers can lose their licenses for up to a year.